Did Bill Hybels 'Repent' of Seeker Sensitive?

I've been receiving numerous emails from people asking me what my take is on the recent news of "Bill Hybels repenting" of his seeker sensitive methodology. The talk of repentance by the founder of the Willow Creek church comes from a recent conference in which he was quoted as saying: "spiritual growth doesn't happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage". Of course, that's true, and that's why so many of us have been chanting "give us Bibles not Hybels!" for years. But the question now is - what are we to make of these latest Willow words? Are we really seeing a change of mind from the Prince of Plexiglas Pulpits? Or is this just another left turn leading even further away from biblical Christianity? ... [Read More!]

The Offense of The Cross, Not of The Marketing

Horatius Bonar had the offense of cross in mind when he said "For we know that the unrenewed will is set against the Gospel; it is enmity to God and His truth. ~ It is the Gospel that the unbeliever hates; and the more clearly it is set before him, the more he hates it". A knee-jerk response to that sentiment by today's relevance crowd is usually "yeah, but we don't need to add to that with our own offensiveness". I can relate to that; it brings to mind the wacky guy in my city who rides around in a graffiti-riddled hearse shouting "turn or burn" through a loudspeaker on his roof. What's ironic though, is that the Christian leaders who are most concerned with being non-offensive today seem to be the most willing to be offensive to the very people that they are reaching out to, if it serves their pragmatic aims. This was recently demonstrated in a story on CNN news. ... [Read More!]

Small Churches MUST "Depend on Creativity"?

UPDATED 9/30/07 - This one is a little too wordy to squeeze into the scrolling ticker, so I'll leave it here for a few days and then remove it. Every once in a while you run across a leader in the Church Growth Movement that has a verbal slip which reveals their thinking, and exposes the rotten root structure that this movement is based on. Now perhaps this church leader doesn't realize what he's just said, and his statement may not reflect his true beliefs, but have a look at point 3 in his list. He says: "It's important to learn from churches bigger and smaller then you. Churches that are smaller have to be even more creative, because their success depends on it". I certainly hope he doesn't believe that ANY church's success depends on human creativity. The Apostle Paul never talked like that; he spoke as though success depends on God, and he didn't want to do anything that would replace or "enhance" the Gospel with human wisdom and cleverness. Comments now open. ... [Read More!]

Using Entertainment to Teach Eternal Punishment?   

It's one of the criticisms of the modern Church Growth Movement; negative subjects are to be avoided or minimized, and that especially includes the "H-Word". Occasionally however, we run across one such church that's willing to talk about this most somber of topics. But when they do, there's often a whole other set of errors that accompany their presentation. Take for example last Sunday's service at NewSpring. Although they dedicated a whole service to the topic, they actually found a way to teach eternal endless punishment in an entertaining way. They used the Hells Bells rock song, pyrotechnics, humor, and the pastor spoke from a coffin. An appeal to come to Jesus was given but repentance was never discussed. Decisional Regeneration was employed in an effort to get people to decide upon salvation. The pastor praised those who made that decision, and that night on his blog he reported the convert-count. Take a closer look at the 'cool' way that a hot place was presented. ... [Read More!]

Are We Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats?

An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it during the past few years. It has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. ... [Read More!]

Paying Homage To The Great god Entertainment   John MacArthur

There seems almost no limit to what modern church leaders will do to entice people who aren't interested in worship and preaching. Too many have bought the notion that the church must win people by offering an alternative form of entertainment. Just how far will the church go in competing with Hollywood? ... [Read More!]

"Good Food, Good News" - Good Bait and Switch?

I just saw another one last week, it was a promo for one of those Christian evangelism festivals. You know the ones I'm talking about, the idea is to entice neighborhood unbelievers to come and enjoy "good food, good fun, and good news". By good news I mean, the church or organization that sponsors the festival will finish-off the event with an evangelism message. It sounds like a pretty good idea! I mean, we definitely want to evangelize a lot of people, and these parties do produce a huge number of decisions for Christ. They just seem like a great way for churches and organizations to bring in the multitudes, and while they are a captive audience, you may as well preach and reach. Right? What could possibly be wrong with that?! ... [Read More!]

Leader Assimilation: The Building of a Clone Army

They're everywhere - you can't escape this army, they've become the status quo. Perhaps they've already invaded your camp and have cast you atop the scrap pile of trouble makers. Maybe they've just set up a base in your sector, and are trying to lure you in with a never ending stream of postcards offering you coffee, entertainment, and marriage help. Resistance is futile, your former leaders have either been assimilated or forced-out by this new army, but WHO ARE THESE CLONES?... [Read More!]

Confessions of a 'Numbers' Pastor

In the same week of seeing with my own eyes - one of the most distressing "come on, get baptized, everybody's doing it" type church videos, I also happened to read a blog post bathed in baptism-boasting and conversion counting. It comes from a familiar source, and once again, he's indignant that anyone would question the importance of 'numbers'. In this post however, we'll hear from a recovering 'numbers' pastor, and find out from him where his obsession lead him. ... [Read More!]

What Good is Simply "Churching" Them?   John MacArthur

That is precisely my concern about today's pragmatic church-growth strategies. The design is to attract the unchurched. For what? To entertain them? To get them to attend church meetings regularly? Merely "churching" the unchurched accomplishes nothing of eternal value. ... [Read More!]

The Epidemic of Easy-Believism   Henry Scougal

Jesus said strive to enter in. It is on this point that we design to fix our attention at this time. And, indeed there is scarcely any doctrine that needs to be more inculcated, for amongst all of the stratagems whereby the great Enemy of mankind contrives their ruin, few are more unhappily successful than the fond persuasion he has filled them with, that heaven and everlasting happiness are easily attainable. What one says of wisdom, we may, with little alteration, apply unto this purpose: "That many might have reached heaven, if they had not been so confident of it". The doors of the Christian Church are now very wide, and men have access unto them upon easy terms... [Read More!]

Are Seeker Pastors Sending Me 'Secret Messages'?

When it comes to messages delivered by today's most innovative pastors, we sometimes struggle to find the old truth. Occasionally Old Truth is even deliberately hidden in their words, so that only a few will notice it. No, I'm not talking about the biblical old truth this time, I'm referring to the name of this blog, and the amusing abusing that it sometimes encounters. But it's not always on the surface, you'll have to read between the lines to find it. So in this post, we'll fire-up the Old Truth decoder, and use it to unmask the "secret messages" of seeker pastors. ... [Read More!]

Cowardly Preaching and The Veiled Truth   William Gurnall

To a sinner, the light of truth is more blistering than a desert sun on mid-day (John 3:19). He shuns to walk where it is shining, and when exposed to it, will spare no expense to get relief. Satan is always at his elbow, ready to help him find a way to hide from it's penetrating rays. Does he hear the truth in a powerful sermon? Satan will sit alongside him in the pew and whisper nonsense to distract him. He may ask his plans for dinner, or what is on the schedule for tomorrow. And if the sermon gets too hot, the devil will dull his senses and get him to doze until the service is over. Suppose a man's conscience strains toward the truth. Satan may then send him to hear a cold preacher, whose senseless prattle will tickle his fancy rather than prick his conscience. Oh, he may preach from the word of God, but he does it gingerly. ... [Read More!]

Numerical Growth Can Be Deceptive   Nathan Busenitz

Numerical growth can take place for wrong reasons. For example, during Jesus' ministry, much of the crowd that followed him was more interested in his miracles than in his message (John 6:26). In fact, the wrong measure of success can be outright deadly - lulling churches into thinking that they are doing well when in fact they are not. ... [Read More!]